


Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo

by Anonymous



Series: Demonic Dealings [2]
Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Asexual Character, Demon Deals, Demon!Dan, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-30 09:23:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8527732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When a bird and a fish fall in love where can they build their nest?You waited so long, and now he's returned, can all really be so easily forgiven? Can that which is mortal and immortal truly love?Can two creatures so different make a life with one another?Or would it have been better if he'd simply never returned.





	1. Vulcanize the whoopee stick

Little things said in passing are often easy to forget.  
“Time runs differently in my world.”

Humans with their small lives and ever ticking clocks, so aware of each passing moment.

Mortals with their shifting emotions, ever burning, ever flowing, so aching for the things that bring them joy. So hurt when those joys are taken away.

How could an immortal creature ever understand the needles that a human would experience waiting for his return?

Things moved fast and things moved slow and time passed.

Dan’s world was not small, just as large and just as reaching as the human one but lacking a lot of the things that made transportation easy that mortals had. Immortals didn’t mind spending a year walking slowly from one location to the next, time meant nothing while the experiences and sights were more important than any destination. Dan had no such trek but still he travelled to see his friends, and how could he come and visit without the gift of a tale? And how could they not entertain him in thanks? There would be no negotiations between the fey without drink and talk and the exchange of bold tales and gifts.

And of course although Dan may not offer the contract to them he couldn’t ignore his duty to his Court. A request for the central stage, a tale of adventure, humour, affection and…  
A hush from the crowds and an eager stir wanting the end of the story, craving it. Promises of fortune and pledges of any aid required were thrown to his service as he disentangled himself from his duties to take a final pass of respect to his other friends and family, big and small knowing his next jaunt to the human world would be a long one and wanting to leave them with some treasures to remember him by fondly.

One such creature, who in this century had taken the name Brian was a thing not many would, could, or desired to call “Friend” but certainly one that Dan dared not forget in his preparation to return.

He danced, he sang, he embellished in all the right places delighting when he received laughter from the beast. As the tale drew to a close Brian however had questions, his ancient curiosity piqued for the first time in a millennia.

“Why do you keep calling this human your Queen? Is she royalty in their world? The way you speak of her small troubles I cannot believe that she commands much.”

“No, she is not a born royal of her world but she is indeed /my/ Queen. It frightens me ever so that she has absolutely entrapped me like the most skilled of Enchantresses and yet does so with no cunning, no guile, simply her own blessed aura that commands my eternal devotion. If she were to even breathe a word I would obey the greatest of her demands and yet she makes none. She wishes not for sex, not for great deeds, not even for chaste devotion, she only tenderly begs that I be content. She-“ Dan actually had to pause there, a yawning ache in his chest that he had not felt in a long enough time he’d forgotten the sensation. Just like a human to burrow their way into someones heart, so vibrant and present, she cared for him and he was helpless to deny the growing tenderness he had for her as well. “I want to serve her, to help her do whatever it is she wants to do, to be whatever she has most need of. No contract, no tricks, I have nothing but my humble obedience and undying love.”

“You’re an idiot.” Was Brian’s dull, if not slightly amused, response. 

“What?”

He snorted shaking his head “An Incubus falling in love like a common Summer Sprite? You’ve gone mad.”  
“I have not!”  
“I’ll see the measure of this myself.”  
“You will not!!”  
“She needs help with building things? Has asked you to seek willing aid? I have constructed great artifacts in my time and it has been far too long since I have been in the mortal realm, I cast my aid to her, your contract is now mine, payment from you and a fair wage of it to me for the work done.”  
“No! I refuse!”  
“To bad my friend, you should not have come to me unless you wanted my help and now I take your contract. You have gifted me with too fine a tale for me to not owe you a boon.”

“… I fucking hate you Brian.”

“Yes I know.” The creature grinned, his form rolling smaller and smaller into a black snake draped over Dan’s shoulders making the Incubus flinch as Brian hissed a flicking tongue directly into Dan’s ear. “Well lets go, I have chosen to take no disrespect in that I was the last you came to with your story, but I suppose it is the best since we now ssshould go. Thiss human probably doesn’t have long, you know how ssmall their lives can be.”

“Brian.” Dan’s voice dropped seriously, more than he’d ever spoken to the creature before, more seriously than he’d ever dared. “Don’t hurt her.”

Brian scoffed that Dan would think he would do such a thing. Even if it was something he might do depending on how respectful she was.  
“I won’t kill your lady.”

“No, I said don’t hurt her. Swear it to me, by the moon and the Gods you follow in the dark places, that you won’t hurt her, body or spirit. She is kind, she has been kinder to me than no others have, if she is pure and even if she is not, I beg of you, swear to me. Don’t hurt her.”

The snake was quiet, sliding down to look at Dan’s face and how serious he was, for hundreds of years Brian hand’t seen such a look on his face.

“I swear it Belteshazzar, may the hunt take me, I will not harm your little human Queen.”

Dan relaxed, looking around Brian’s glade, taking stock of himself, finally pulling out her token, a silver necklace he’d kept close to his breast, and stepped forward through the veil to return to her.

Time was always a fuzzy thing between their worlds.

A danger that only ever affected the mortal side of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With all the sadness and negative things floating around lately (not to get political but boy am I glad I am not American, I am sorry y'all) I figured I'd jump back into one of my fave stories and start pumping some good feels out.
> 
> And by good feels I mean angst.
> 
> :D


	2. Cattle prod the oyster ditch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader questions her sanity.
> 
> Brian is a dick.

Selling the house was something you’d wanted to do, after he left. The whole house was a reminder of him that you no longer wanted.

But as time passed the appeal faded, after all who would you sell it to? Middle of nowhere useless property as it was, and the desire to make things work, to have this place for yourself like you'd been dreaming of before he came pushed back any pain you’d felt whenever you looked upon the building.

Memories of Dan were starting to fade, to take on a hazy quality that made you question if any of it had been real.

You moved on, made friends with Suzy and her husband Arin, rented a room in their home while you worked on building your own. The process was slow, trying to do most of the work yourself in your free time while slowly making the preparations to fully move to this little town in the middle of nowhere.  
Arin, Suzy, and a few of their friends helped you when they could, but none of them were in the construction business so it was a lot of staring at books and googling videos of what to do and praying you didn’t burn something down. Buying supplies that you hoped would be the right things and getting estimates after estimates of the cost of what needed to be done still unsure of what you should do. Some would say that it could be repaired, some said it needed to be rebuilt, some said the land was unbuildable upon.

All agreed it would be deeply expensive.

Five months had passed and you felt like perhaps your heart had healed.

And yet you would still dream.

Still dream of his arms around you at night, fingers dancing over scales, smells of cinnamon and sugar and something else giving you craving for the unobtainable.  
So real each time, yet you would wake angry and aching.

“I missed you~” He would say, nosing closer.  
“I hate you.” You whispered back, the pain that no matter how real he felt in this tender moment, that this was nothing more than a dream, pulling you into wakefulness where you would open your eyes and he would be—

Right there, looking at you with a confused and hurt expression.

You bolted from bed with a scream on your lips shocked that he was real, and in bed with you, that acceptance of such closeness had faded with time. 

It would have been funny how Dan mirrored you, jumping up and screaming in a pitch probably a little higher than your own, had you not been so instantly enraged once the shock had passed. 

“WHAT THE FUCK!” You were the first to yell but you hushed him before he had the chance to speak, footsteps coming up the stairs, a familiar call of your ‘landlords’ asking if you were okay, a quickly hissed “hide!” and slamming the closet door shut on him just as Arin came into the room. “Are you okay?! What happened?”

Standing awkwardly at the closer, your brain scrambled for an excuse.

“Big… Big spider.”

Arin took a step back away from you, looking around the floor hoping not to run into whatever had caused such terror. 

It was supposed to have been a lie, but apparently fate decided to turn you into a prophet today as it was then Arin’s turn to scream and fully leap out of the room with a series of colourful curses.

Looking around the side of the bed you shrieked again, fleeing out of the room with him as there was now, the biggest spider you’d ever seen in your life crawling up the bedsheet.

You hoped Dan figured out that now was the time for him to jump out the window as Arin and you cowered in the kitchen agreeing that the only fix now for a spider that big was to burn down the house.

“Jesus fucking Christ you two.” Suzy grabbed a cup and a piece of paper going into the room like the brave hero she was, coming back out to instead grab a bowl and a piece of cardboard after an exclamation of “Holy shit!” and agreeing that yeah, that spider was a size that she couldn’t really tease either of you for your terror. 

It didn’t stop your skin from crawling as she brought him down the stairs cooing about what a big handsome fellow he was while she tossed him outside.

“What if it comes back?” You whined not wanting to go upstairs again, suddenly needing to run your hands through your hair and check your ears the absolute petrifying paranoia that it laid eggs in your nose making you want to boil your own skin off.  
Arin was rubbing at his arms and checking his hair in a similar manner which made you feel a little better.

“Then we charge it rent, considering how big it is that guy’s gotta have a job.” Suzy lamely joked but all you could do was shudder.

“I’m lighting my room on fire.”  
“Please don’t”  
“Nope, too late, house fire. only way to cleanse the evil, right Arin?”  
“I would side with you but we still owe too much in mortgage I’m afraid. I don’t think we got the spider induced fire insurance.”  
“Shit.”

Suzy rolled her eyes and called the both of you babies, promising that if it came back she’d mount it and sell it and then it would be gone for good.

“That won’t stop it from laying eggs in our heads while we sleep!” You sulked heading back up to your room just remembering now that you had a demon in your closet who might be getting eggs laid on him as you spoke.  
After all, there was never just ONE spider, a thought that made your skin dance with the heebie jeebies.

Opening the door your fluttering heart went ice cold, a worrisome panic in your chest as it was empty.

“Dan?” You hissed in a stage whisper looking now under the bed, taking a quick rush to the bathroom and even quietly poking your head into Arin and Suzy’s room looking for him disappointment and fear edging with each empty call of his name.

So close to getting over him… Had it just been yet another dream?

——

“Brian, that was NOT nice.” Dan scolded his friend scooping him up off the front porch and walking him to the street where he looked around before giving the massive black spider a toss into the air where it turned into a silver haired man wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt.

“You’re absolutely correct Daniel, that wasn’t nice.” He said solemnly his eyes dancing with mirth “It was HILARIOUS.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sleepy guys, I've been on a business trip and it was intense and now I have to work today after not sleeping pretty much all night and overtime like ugh.
> 
> But I had this chapter ready to go and was planning on posting it when I came back so here y'are. Tomorrow will be a slower day.


	3. Batter dip the cranny ax

You spent the better part of the day cleaning your room and parts of the rest of the house too, Suzy joined you for a bit before getting sidetracked by her own projects, needing to fill some orders on her Etsy site as Christmas online shopping was in full swing and things needed to be delivered as soon as possible, Arin heading off by noon to go to his own job leaving you to your devices of making sure the only spiders in the house were the dead ones Suzy was mounting. 

“Going to the house?”  
“Yeah for a bit, just gonna sit out there and think.”  
“Dinner?”  
“Eh, I’ll message you when I’m on my way back but don’t wait up.”

Working usually focused you and cleared your head but since the snow had started to fall here and there and with the ground frozen, working had halted on the house, instead it had become a joking frozen fortress of solitude. Someplace you would go to sit and think, to plan and plot for things that may or may not happen. And you needed to think. 

He’d been there, Dan HAD been there when you’d woken up. That was the whole reason you initially screamed right?

Maybe you were losing your mind.

You were so deep in your head by the time you got to the house you didn’t realize that there was anyone else there until you felt fingers dance gently over your shoulders.  
“Always so wor—“

Pivot, strike.

You didn’t even think, body reacting in fear and muscle memory to drive the heel of your palm into the point between chest and stomach of the person behind you, dropping them to the ground as you knocked the air clean out of them.

“HA!”  
You heard the bark of laughter in unison with you exclaiming “Fuck!” once your brain registered what you had done, quickly going down to hover over Dan who was now in the fetal position making sobbing wheezing sounds.

“I’m so sorry you scared me I didn’t know it was you I just reacted oh my god please be okay are you okay? I’m sorry! I’m sorry please be okay… Shut UP! This isn’t Funny!”

“Yes, it is.” The grey haired man also in the room wasn’t really laughing in a conventional way but the odd sound he was making seemed full of mirth at Dan’s pain. 

“Who the fuck are you? God what are you doing here? I… I thought you’d left.”  
Dan made a soft gurgling sound like he was trying to say something but still didn’t have the breath for it.  
“I’m Brian.” The other man filled in. “Be… Daniel made a contract with me and others to repair your house, that is what you contracted /him/ to do, did you not?”

“I… But he…” Dan put a hand in your lap and you took it, letting him come closer and put his head there while he still whimpered. “You were gone so long I thought…”  
“We’re immortal, Daniel forgot the time constraint that you’re on and had duties to perform while securing contracts for you.” There was something… Bitter to his tone, and yet it didn’t matter to you, all you heard was that he’d not left, not abandoned you, not run away but had simply been doing what he’d told you he was doing, he just… 

Lost track of time.

Rage and relief both bubbled so hard in you that you felt frozen between the two. Angry that while you were waiting, breaking apart, he’d not even realized that you were waiting for him so long. Relief that he didn’t hate you, hadn’t left you, hadn’t forgotten about you.

“I’m sorry.” Dan finally croaked out his breath returning, struggling to sit up and look at you. “You’re angry.”

“I’m conflicted.” You corrected him, and it was true, equal parts of you wanting to slap him silly and cry as were the parts wanting to hug him close and cry.

Instead you simply took the one consistent between the two points…  
And cried.

“Oh Love!” With a final light wheeze Dan got up, now hovering over you, gentle coaxing touches to guide you into his arms while he sweetly begged you to stop crying.  
It wasn't something you were proud of doing, just a reaction to stress and emotions you'd been bottling and a whole day of gaslighting yourself, assuming you were crazy and spiralling your own emotions into a small depressive cloud until it snapped open into salty tears. But they were good ones, happy and sad, healing. Trying to cleanse you of all the bitter feelings you'd been holding onto. Still you hated to cry and that almost made it worse. What made you finally clamp down on your emotions was the not-so-subtle sound of disgust coming from his friend. Anger, sadness, relief, all burning away into a loathsome embarrassment at your less than impressed audience member. 

Dan glowered at Brian, being able to sense your shifts in emotion, his look warning in nature causing the creature to roll his eyes and throw his hands up grumbling about delicate mortals while he wandered out of the room with a pointed “I guess I’ll see what all the fuss about this house is.” leaving the two of you to your tender moment.

Tears were bitterly tucked away by that point, the inside of your mouth bitten to copper taste in your need to force yourself to stop, twice as hard to stem those emotions with Dan being so soft and kind, pulling you into his lap while he started randomly talking, telling you about his trip home.

His voice was even more soothing than you remembered, musical as he retold a clearly abbreviated version of what he’d been doing. Taking time to answer your soft questions about the court and his friends, explaining and warning that Brian was “To put it mildly a bit of a dick, so please don’t take anything he says to heart.” but that he was powerful enough to be able to easily help. That when you were ready to complete the house he had just the people you needed for the job.

It was scary, how fast you forgave, and yet you felt that now he was back you had no reason to be angry, it was more a mistake on your part than his. Of course to someone immortal the passage of time meant nothing, you hadn’t put any timeframe on his return simply a “Soon” but what was a few months to someone who had lived for hundreds of years? 

You’d never wanted to be “That clingy kind of girlfriend” and if you were being really honest there’d been no promises of devotion between the two of you yet so there was even less reason to be bitter.

Logic followed what the heart already wanted, battering down any creeping thoughts that might argue against it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda filler chapter to get from point A to B could fill it with more but it was getting bleh and draggy so I ended it and just putting the rest in notation here.
> 
> You want to take Dan back with you but are uncertain how to explain him just yet to Suzy and Arin but figure you can broach it tonight first and then bring Dan over, after all it's not your house to just invite people in.
> 
> Plus you have no idea what to do with Brian.
> 
> Dan is fine staying at the house, there are things there for napping which will be good enough for general sleep, it is cold but transformed Brian can help keep him warm.
> 
> Brian bragged at one point that he would be able to fix the house in a few hours but then upon inspection realizes he has no idea how anything in the house works, is unfamiliar with electricity and all the devices here in this time, he gets very quiet about this.


	4. Retrofit the pudding hatch

“Barry here was the original architect of the house! So he already knows about a lot about what you want done.”

“Oh!” You smiled and offered a hand to the man next to Dan.

It had been an interesting series of events leading up to this point. That night Dan had returned with his friend you’d left the two of them alone at the house, his Brian had torn up the wall in one of the rooms while you were gone in insistence that he knew what he was doing, apparently electrocuted himself in the process. Crisped and miffed that he obviously didn’t understand enough about modern technology to do anything with the house, he banished himself to the library to catch up on the last few thousand years, leaving you and Dan to yourselves for the next few weeks. 

A good thing since you weren’t exactly impressed by his antics either, poor Dan having to siphon off a little of that anger since Brian had smartly vacated the premises when you’d returned the next day to see the damage he’d caused.

As much as you wanted to simply be with Dan, to take back what his time away had forced you to lose, you also wanted to get this project done so that…

You weren’t sure what, but there were dreams and idea’s and hopes there of what the future could hold.

You’d explained that Dan was back, fabricating a story for him as to where he had been and who he was as a ‘human’ and Dan had come over to meet Suzy and Arin, both of them at first trying to play the overprotective guardians to you, even though you were older than them, suspicious of Dan’s return since they’d been there to help your tender heart when you thought it had become apparent he wasn’t coming back.

Fortunately Dan was a professional entertainer, winning over Arin much faster than Suzy, but even then with your forgiveness earned she had nothing to really hold against him, especially since he explained in an offhand way that he had friends who would be visiting who had agreed to fix the house and would probably have it done before summer came if not even sooner. Suzy held onto her light suspicion of him but he had your trust and you had her blessing.

He was a charmer after all.

It had taken a day or two longer to get everything you needed together, not for the work on the house but simply to summon his contractor. Making the details of what would be done, Dan carefully teaching you how to draw a summoning circle properly, the things to say and do to enact a full and proper contact with this new creature. 

He assured you his friends would never harm you, he still insisted that this be properly done, “It’s better you know how to do it right so that if you ever need to call on another one of my kind you don’t make any mistakes. It would tear my soul to pieces if I heard that someone had harmed you.”

Circle drawn, incantations spoken, sacrifices offered, you had before you a Barry. 

He was still taller than you but shorter and stouter than Dan, bearded and friendly looking, he kind of made you think of a kindly lumberjack. 

“Are you also an Incubus?” 

Barry looked at Dan and then back to you and started laughing at your innocent question as though you’d told the greatest joke he’d ever heard, Dan looked amused but also a little like he was insulted. 

“I- I suppose if he’s the only lusty fey you’ve run into you would think that even I could be that handsome.” He joked teasing Dan who smiled wickedly at him and muttered crossly that he would spit in milk.

“To humans my kind are know as Lurdane or sometimes Brownies or Domovoi depending on where you are from… But-” He smiled and preened, adjusting his clothing and hair, standing taller while continuing to tease Dan. “Maybe I should be looking into a career change?” 

“My darling, my sweet, my duck, I will piss into every cup you drink from my dearest friend~” Dan sweetly sang to him in threat.

“Sorry, I’m still really new to the whole…” You waved your hand at the two of them not sure what to say since Dan was making strange sounding threats and Barry was just smiling and laughing at them all.

“It’s fine my Sweet, Barry is rather fair— for his kind, I suppose, and your world does have peculiar tastes… Which I guess I shouldn’t complain since those oddities are what make you find me fair of face and form.” You knew all was forgiven with his arm around your shoulders and a kiss pressed to the side of your head.

Still soothing Dan’s ego you took his hand, keeping him wrapped close to you but continued to address Barry.“When did you last come to this world?”  
“Uh— Time is a little fuzzy between our worlds but I believe it was sometime around the 1940’s? Give or take a decade or two. There was a big war happening at the time or maybe had just finished? I’m not quite sure, the Miss would let me listen to the radio by the fire when I was done working for the day and I can remember bits and pieces of it but I wasn’t very interested in the news, it was all mostly sad things. I liked the music and radio plays though. In any case, I understand the whole idea of electricity and did the original wiring which I mean, should still be fine? It’s protected against weather and pests.”  
“The electrical grid has changed since then and needs to be updated anyway since I’d like to go solar if I can.”  
“Ah yes I was reading in those books you sent with Dan, I’m not directly familiar with it but I think I can figure it out and run lines through the house, I don’t think I can make the sun panels though, the construction of those is a bit out of my skill set and the books were not detailed enough in that regard.”  
“Oh no I bought the solar panels already. I’ve just been slowly collecting what I’ll need for the upgrade so I’m sure I’ve got all the equipment just needed the manual labour.”  
“And that I can do. New electrical lines will need to be pulled through the whole house to convert everything over since the solar energy runs on a different charge, and you’ve got the converters and batteries for all this already right?”

“I understood the words Manual Labour!” Dan interrupted making clear that he had no idea what you were talking about. “Which means it’s my time to politely excuse myself.”

“Come now Danny a little hard work might help get you as ruggedly good looking as me!” 

Dan looked at him with a sour face. “My Sweet do you have milk? I feel the urge to add lemon juice to it and let it ferment in the sun for a while.”  
“You are a cruel demon Dan.” Barry sulked at the threat.

Looking between them you sighed, not understanding their spat at all.  
“… I am so confused.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry being a "Brownie" essentially favours milk as his treat as Dan favours candy. So Dan threatening to ruin all the milk in the land is the meanest thing he can do.


	5. Power drill the yippee bog

Work on the house was a thing that was starting to happen. Still slowly since the ground was frozen and even though he was magic Barry couldn’t exactly alter the weather or dig through dirt that was rock solid, but the process of getting the solar panels and electricity running was moving along quickly enough that the three fey men could comfortably stay in the house and have some heat without needing to chop wood or burn up all the gas in the small generator you’d borrowed for them since there was no way Suzy and Arin would house all three. 

All of this meant you were somewhat freed up, both emotionally and work-wise, giving you time to join Suzy with her holiday festivities and general running about to get her own work done.

A Christmas party was a thing she was holding, not huge just a few mutual friends and of course Dan was invited too since not only had he been at the house more often than not to spend time with you, but also because Arin had taken a grand shining to him, the two of them spending almost more time together than you and Dan were.

Not that you were upset about it. You had your own things to do at times, so you were glad Dan was kept from being bored, and it was hilarious to just listen to the two of them talk while Arin played video games and Dan watched, absolutely fascinated with the technology even if he had a muddled time trying to do it himself, thus preferring to simply observe.

You thought the two of them should start a podcast or something, it was really funny listening to them talk.

Dan had been pretty good at falling into his “Role” that you had worked out for him, he was born in the USA but his family moved around the world so English wasn’t fully his first language, this all explained how sometimes his word choices were odd or how some things were strange or different to him that usually any American would know like movies, games, books, food, pop culture. How he went to school with a degree in history which explained how he would have such a wide range of knowledge that seemed misplaced for this time period. You were still trying to make some story to explain Barry and Brian other than they were friends of Dan's and helping with the house, but at least for Barry you didn't have to. Barry was taking to the new technology and time period like a duck to water and Brian…

Well…

He certainly wasn’t invited to the Christmas party that night. The man tended to creep you out in equal portions to how his jokes and tricks often pissed you off. Barry quietly and friendly hovered at the party, polite but quiet, ecstatic and maybe just a little drunk on eggnog. However Dan grabbed your arm soon after the two of you came into the house, gripping it little tightly while his entire body becoming ridged, you could hear him excitedly whisper “A changeling” giving your arm a shake to pull your attention to the person he’d caught. 

Ross’s head snapped up at that, surprising you because he was too far away for him to have heard what Dan had said, you’d barely heard it, yet now he was staring at Dan like a deer caught in headlights ready to run.

Arin must have said something or repeated a question because Ross shook his head and with his eyes constantly looking back over to Dan, (whom you smacked lightly in the chest noticing now that he was very obviously staring) Ross tried to continue his conversation with Arin but it was easy to see he was distracted making Arin look over to see Dan standing there, even noticing the odd way they were looking at each other as Dan was creeping closer with a huge grin on his face.

“Do you guys… Know each other?”

“No” They both answered in unison far too quickly but the way Dan was smiling and how Ross was generally looking uncomfortable made Arin look at you as though you knew what was going on.

Giving them both a look you shrugged too and opted instead to give Dan a slightly sharp elbow to the side finally snapping him out of whatever strange mood had taken over him.

“Hey um, nice to meet you uh…”  
“Dan!” His hand shot out shaking Ross’s with still a little too much enthusiasm.   
“Dan uh can I just talk to you for a quick second, pardon us…”   
Ross basically dragged him out, calling out to his wife as he pulled Dan out the front door to talk.

“What even…” Arin looked flummoxed at the sudden change.  
“Five bucks says they had a drunken one night stand together and are both just embarrassed about it.” You offered trying to lighten the mood and offer some kind of potential explanation. Arin laughed and took you up on the bet creating his own story, even more sordid, that it was actually on some deeply kinky website and maybe they just recognized one another’s picture. 

You were deep into a conversation of the possibility of them both being secret porn stars when they finally slipped back into the house, Holly and Dan looking much more relaxed and laughing while Ross still looked just a touch on the jumpy side. 

It was hard to totally side-step what had just happened, Dan giving the side of your head a happy little peck and a mumbled, “Tell you later”  
Ross instead getting a very blunt “So… Were you guys like in a porno together or something?” From Arin making Ross cover his face grumbling “I need to be more drunk.” moving quickly to the kitchen followed closely by his curious friend.

“Did you guys make a story for all that?” You whispered at Dan now that Arin was away.  
“Not quite, but it seems like you an Arin have created some delightfully sordid ideas for us. Did you know that Holly is an Aurai?”  
“Really I’m only like one-eighth, hardly anything, but those who are part folk can kind of sense it and full…” She gestured at Dan since someone else walked past giving them a nod in greeting but not wanting them to listen in. “Can instantly tell. Ross is only maybe a quarter himself but Dan—“ Her voice was a light scolding, like a teacher to a naughty student but it was enough to make Dan dip his head in guilt and scuff his feet. "Just couldn't keep his cool about seeing us."

“I said I was sorry outside. I just didn’t expect to see any Folk here so I got excited… Oh Barry, my friend, he’s over by the tree there—“  
“Yes we met, he was more polite in his introduction and didn't try to out us." She still scolded but it was gentle and really Dan deserved it. "But I suppose he is a Brownie, they’re a bit more level headed.” She teased now making Dan sulk and move closer to you as if you would stop the pink haired woman from making fun of him.

“Yes Dan can be a bit of a handful. Barry’s been helping with the house.”

It wasn’t your first time meeting Ross or Holly, they too were often at Arin and Suzy’s house, playing D&D or Holly often worked with Suzy with their projects, coming by to borrow a cup of hot glue or a million pins and needles. You just hadn’t known that they were Fey, part or otherwise.

“I wouldn’t have guessed you for a summoner.” Holly mused. “Originally I thought Suzy was one, or at least maybe part Folk herself, but she’s just Suzy, you’re so…”  
“Boring?”  
“No you’re not boring! But just very non-occult-like. Like you don’t even play D&D with us.”  
“Yuh, cus I’m not a neeeerrrrrdddd” You drew out the word teasing at Holly who lightly slapped at your arm.   
“Apparently it runs in my family and I sort of fell into it on accident. I wouldn’t really call myself anything just yet but Dan’s been kind enough to help me out with keeping safe.”

“Has he?” Her look at tone were a bit odd but nothing harsh enough that you felt you could pin something down to specifically comment on, especially since more people were coming into the house making the private nature of the conversation a little harder to hold.

“I’m going to go talk to Ross but Arin can be as stubborn as a bull with things so if you need to tell him something tell him that Dan and I met at like a swinger party or something and Ross is embarrassed.”  
Your raised eyebrow which made Holly shrug but not blush, she was unashamed of her preferences even if she tended to keep them to herself.   
“We on occasion have partook in a few night fancy parties and Arin and Suzy know about it so it’s believable, Ross is less into it than I am so his reaction makes sense. Arin and Suzy don’t know about us being Folk and well, I don’t care but Ross is more twitchy about it so we’d rather you keep it to yourselves.” 

“I perfectly understand. It’s not my place, I mean your family history or just your personal escapades so I’ll keep my mouth shut on all of it and so. Will. Dan.” You leaned and nudged him to get your point gently across but he was nodding seriously already. 

“Of course my lady, I fully acknowledge that I stepped out of bounds in my excitement and swear on the stars that I will not be so uncouth in the future.” 

Holly gave him that funny look that people often gave him when they first met, his style of speech slowly becoming ‘normal’ but still very flowery especially when he apologized. 

“Anyway, lets go save Ross from Arin before they start a scene and we have to explain our sordid sex life to the entire party.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a little extra time lately but most of this was written ages ago and I just needed to give it a better start and ending and polish up the middle bits here and there. Still working on this, I've got bits and pieces written but like I mentioned in Fragments I've got a lot of "Life stuff" happening lately so writing is being put on the back burner.
> 
> Marry Holidays to all and to all a good night!


	6. I Brazilian wax poetic

“What do you think of Suzy and Arin?”

You asked this question softly since the couple had gone upstairs, a group movie night for new years that they tapped out on early (probably due to their midnight kiss getting a little steamier than usual) leaving Dan and you on the sofa downstairs. You’d gotten up to put away the popcorn bowl while Dan switched out movies but something Suzy had teased in passing while her and Arin had head upstairs was tickling in your brain.

“I like them, Arin is very fun, he like to play those television games which are so confusing but the emotions that he has while he’s playing them, it’s dizzying but so delightful!”  
“And Suzy?” You softly pressed.  
“She’s very…” He trailed off for a moment looking at you in his peripheral trying to choose the best words not wanting to offend. “Interesting. Bold, fashionable, a woman of strong character.”  
“Would you like to have sex with her?”

Dan was now looking at you with a wary look in his eye, he’d played this game before with women, fey and human alike, and he never liked it.

“Come here.” He ordered, holding out his hand and pointedly not answering the question. Not quite understanding what was going on you took his hand, allowing him to pull you into his lap, arranging you into a cuddle that felt a little odd with how his hands moved up and down your arms but he wasn’t really relaxing.  
“Now tell me what is going on exactly, why do you ask such questions?”

“I… Well I wanted to know if you wanted to have sex with Suzy.”  
“Yes I deduced that was where you were going with this track of questioning but what I want to know is /why/ you are asking. I didn’t think you were the type to play games of demand and fabricated arguments.”  
“Oh! Oh no I’m not trying to start a fight!” Now you felt a little bad, understanding why he was so tense. “I just wanted to know if you were actually attracted to her, I mean well… Remember your story of meeting Holly at a Night Fancy party? Well Arin and Suzy on occasion swing at those types of events too, and well, I guess as Suz was going upstair she was all ‘don’t have sex on the couch’ and I realized I never told her I was asexual and then I was kinda thinking about how that wasn’t really fair to you and figured… I dunno maybe if Suzy or Holly were okay with it too and you were interested that you could have sex with one of them instead of me.”

He looked up to the roof, his eyes moving and head gently nodding, little motions that told you he was having a conversation in his head debating how he wanted to respond. All the while his the hand not on your waist holding you steady wandered up your arm to your cheek, pulling your head under his chin, finally his body relaxing against yours.

“I am happy.” He stated plainly, “I mean will not lie and say she is not an attractive woman and that I am uninterested, but I want you to know that /am/ happy and the energy you share with me is sustaining— No, it’s… It’s warming and fulfilling, so I am happy with you.”  
You gave him a few seconds of quiet before throwing out the “But?”

“But… I can tell this offer does make you sad.”

You thought about it, analyzing your feelings a bit more, because in the end he was right, there was a greedy part of you that didn’t want to offer him this, that was scared of it. 

“A part of me is, if I’m being honest.” You spoke slowly with thought trying to be honest with not just him but yourself. “I mean… I’ve never really been with anyone who respected the fact that I’m asexual and I mean I never really figured it out for a long time either so there’s that and I guess the full truth is I sometimes wish I wasn’t asexual, that whatever allosexuals feel for one another I wish could experience that… I mean I think a lot of this is just a sociological thing, like media and shit tells me that with love comes sex and that to really show and experience love you have to have sex. Which I mean I know that’s bullshit because lots of people feel love for things they never have sex with and most sex that takes place in the world is probably completely loveless but still, it’s portrayed as something so important in society so I always wonder. Am I missing out on love? Am I feeling less affection that someone who has sex feels? So I can’t help but feel a little bit… Broken at times.”

“Lovely you are NOT broken.”

“I know that but it won’t stop those tiny little feelings of being a little sad that I’m not perfectly normal I suppose.”

He rocked you ever so gently side to side with a sighing heartfelt “I know.” and you knew he did, after all in his world he too was considered imperfect and had his own set of nagging issues of inadequacy at times.

“Anyway, I always told myself that if was ever in a relationship with someone who wasn’t asexual that I would be okay with having an open poly relationship because just like it’s not fair of someone else to demand that I have to have sex with them it’s equally not fair of me to demand that they don’t get to have sex at all so I figured if I can make an arrangement among good friends and everyone understands and is cool with stuff then that would be for the best. Or I mean certainly easier on everyone than my partner trying to go out for one night stands and hurting someone else or something.”

Dan’s long pause after your little speech started to worry you his arms squeezing around you a little tighter.

“Do you… See us like that?” He asked softly making you look up at him. “In a relationship?”

“Well… I mean yeah, I kinda… Hoped?” 

You were a little worried as you replied, certainly he spoke to you affectionately and you told him you didn’t want him to be bound to you against his will, but neither of you had really said directly what the nature of your relationship was. There was the lightest look of surprise on his face that exploded into the biggest smile you’d ever seen on him, his arms squeezing around you tightly as he pulled you closer dipping down and then stopping. 

“May I kiss you?” He asked.

“Sure.” He said he couldn’t project his feelings onto you so maybe it was that he asked first, maybe it was that you could feel him still grinning, but you but your heart fluttered in your chest with a rush of emotions as his lips met yours. A firm kiss that immediately got silly as he kept planting smooches all over your face and half raspberry half love bites along your neck making you giggle and push at him while he play fought with you to keep nipping at you until you pinned him under you and laid on him to keep his hands and mouth from tickling at you any more. 

Calmed from your play, releasing his hands to let them rest on your back just holding you against him while you half watched the movie, feeling a light drain as he muttered a “May I?” and slid a hand up the back of your shirt nibbling on your feelings of giddy contentment he sighed.

“If Suzy is interested and Arin and you are truly okay with it I wouldn’t object to being carnally involved with her, but I am happy even without that my sweet Queen.”

“Good,” You mumbled sleepily into his chest. “That’s all I want.”

Simply hearing that, Dan had never felt so full.

————

It had been a bit of an interesting conversation with Suzy, first needing to explain what asexual meant to her and then broaching the subject of how interested in swinging her and Arin were and if they liked Dan that way.

Suzy brought it up with Arin, who then brought it up with Dan, resulting in a slightly awkward but very adult dinner between the four of you to discuss exactly what everyone wanted and was okay with.

Which is how you ended up out at your house with Barry and Brian for the evening while Dan went on a “date” with Arin and Suzy.

Barry was easy to deal with, quiet and unassuming he curled up in a pile of blankets and pillows next to a lamp with a stack of books and seemed deeply content with that. He was good to talk to whenever you had something to discuss with him but wasn’t like Dan with a million stories and a need to fill the air with chatter at times. He was okay with being perfectly silent, listening or simply existing with or without company.

It was Brian that you didn’t know what to do with…

He didn’t talk much, barely answering your questions with vague one word responses, and yet he would follow you silently throughout the house just staring at you.

“You… Don’t like me very much do you?” You finally ventured tired of the quiet and unable to concentrate on anything with his constant hovering.

“I don’t really have much of any opinion about you.”  
“Then why don’t you talk or… Do something.”

He cocked his head to the side as though surprised by your statement.   
“Dan has requested that I not harm you, human emotions are so fragile that even simple words can cut them deeply. I feel if I am to keep my promise it is better I simply do not speak with you at all.”

If you don’t have anything nice to say… Apparently you will be creepy as hell.

“Then why are you following me around? Why not go bother Barry or do something else?”

He thought about it offering a little shrug. “This world is very new and… Different from what I once knew. I have much to learn before I would feel comfortable exploring it alone and the best way to learn is to observe. And I wish to know more about Dan’s little queen.”

The way he spoke Dan’s pet name gave you the creeps. 

He followed you as you went to the kitchen thinking a hot cup of tea and sitting with Barry might put a damper on the case of the heebie jeebies Brian was giving you when finally he seemed to come to a decision, tapping your elbow to get you to look at him.

His eyes froze you in place, they were so blue and cold, it was like an endless sky that you couldn’t look away from.

“Look at me and speak the truth, why is it that you summoned Dan?”  
“Curious… Bored… Lonely… I thought the book was a joke, I saw the recipe for tarts and thought it might be amusing to make them, that they were promising my hearts desire to be found I didn’t know what that meant exactly but I knew that I wanted something…” You spoke much more candidly than you’d intended, surprising yourself and yet unable to look away from Brian’s cold, piercing stare.

“And why are you so kind to him?”

“Because… Why wouldn’t I be?” It was a strange question that once again filled you with that bitter sadness wondering what kind of world Dan came from that simple niceties were considered favours and yet even with a world like that Dan could be so sweet and filled with joy.

“Yes Daniel is a special sort isn’t he, so much light and spark in him, a rarity in either of our worlds.” Brian mused making you realize that you’d spoken all those thoughts out loud. “And what then is your hearts desire right now?”

“I want the house to be finished.” At this point in time that was all your wanted, certainly there were fragmented hopes in the future of what this house would mean for you and possibly, if he wanted, for Dan as well. But those thoughts and dreams and hopes were all half formed, kept tucked away out of your mind and banished from your heart, not wanting to get any hopes up just yet.

Once the house was done, then…

“Is that it? Of course like a human wanting things having plans, needing your life just in such order.” His voice wasn’t cruel but wasn’t kind, stating a fact that he wasn’t happy with but was true.

You were puzzled at the statement, of course you had plans and needed things to go in order. First the house needed to be done, and then Dan would be free of all his obligations to you, only then would you really be okay with…

Brian looked away and you felt like a string was cut in your mind, aware now that you’d been talking and letting your mouth clap shut. You knew something had happened with Brian, not huge thing but a fleeting sensation that something had passed between the two of you, that he’d made a judgement as he walked from the room now willing to leave you alone. Whatever decision he’d come to you couldn’t quite say what it was if it was anything at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sleepies.
> 
> zzzz.


	7. I don't wanna beat around the bush

Dan’s date had gone well for him. 

Suzy had given you a call in the morning to inform you that he was passed out in your bed, sounding a little worried since it seemed he had a stomach ache.

You’d found him rolling around in your bed like a fat lazy cat.

“Did you have a good night?” You asked crawling into the bed with him getting pulled close so he could nuzzle against your neck softly demanding to be pet.

“Yes~” He’d sighed, “I am so full I think I’m going to explode.”  
“Well please don’t. I can’t imagine it would be easy to clean you off my sheets.”  
He gave a wicked little snicker at that and muttered that maybe Suzy could give you some help since she was already going to be cleaning him off her sheets.

That earned him a little hair tug but it wasn’t much of a punishment.

“Can we go back to the house? I’d like to drop my glamour, did Barry finish with the plumbing in the house?”  
“Yeah actually, we’ve got hot water out there and everything, takes a little while for the tank to heat but he thinks he can fix that.”  
“Wonderful… Can I take a shower with you?”  
“You want me to oil your scales?” You grinned since it almost sounded like a euphemism but it wasn’t.  
“Please?”  
“Sure.”

——

The house was coming along quickly, Brian occasionally made appearances to try his hand at this or that but more often than not he was was a hinderance than a help.   
Barry kept his mouth shut about it but you could tell after a particular crash or rattle and he would come stomping into the kitchen, his form blurred that he looked larger, hairier, his eyes glowing a little while he chugged a carton of milk quietly fuming until Brian would give up on whatever he was trying to fix (but inevitably destroy) leaving Barry and you to attempt at repairing it.

Winter turned to spring and with that came new food to the market and a new game you enjoyed playing with Dan…

“What is this?” He asked as he did when you would bring groceries to the house for them.  
“Watermelon, do you want some?”  
“Oh. No thank you, I don’t like watermelon.”  
“Really?”  
“It’s too bitter for my taste.”  
“… What are you talking about it’s sweet?”  
“Watermelon? No it’s bitter.”  
“Eat it.”  
“No I don’t want to it’s terrible.”  
“Dan, trust me it’s sweet.”

He frowned, whined, and you took a piece in your mouth and coaxed him to take it with a kiss, part of the game you would play with him and new food, the play of getting him to try it. He did eventually eat it, pecking it from your lips before standing there confused at the taste and then took a bite of the melon on his own.

“This isn’t watermelon.”

This wasn’t a new argument, when he’d been around the first time you’d gone out to eat, mostly for simple things, cafe sandwiches and takeout that he just didn’t recognize and didn’t question. Now that you had a home to stay in, a kitchen to cook in, you were bringing home more vegetables, more fruits, more things he thought he should know but didn’t.

It reminded you of how old he was, reminded you of how the world had changed, and it was just funny to see him both puzzled and pleased at how much better things were.

“I will not eat a tomato, they are poisonous.” He’d said ages ago when you first brought them into the house.  
“They’re not poisonous”  
“They ARE.”  
He looked terrified when you popped a cherry tomato in your mouth and ate it. “There is not enough candy in the world to make me eat one of those. You are mad to tempt the fates like that!”  
“Dude tomatoes aren’t poison.”

As it turned out a few hundred years ago, it was “common knowledge” they were poison due to them leaching the lead out of plates.

There were a lot of things he wouldn’t eat due to his past knowledge. Tomatoes, Cranberries, Almonds… Little things that you took for granted that he had justifiable fear of since for all of his life these things had been said to be toxic. 

He was becoming more picky, refusing to try things at times because “he knew” how they tasted already and didn’t like them. Or simply because they confused him and he mistrusted them not realizing how much food had changed drastically over the last 200 years  
(“Orange carrots? ORANGE? How could you even do that? Are they all painted? I don’t like the look of such things.”) 

You began to play games with him, tests in trust and sensuality. Blindfolding him and feeding him things, seeing if he could identify them even though they were things he once knew. Oranges and Lemons he would sing to their sweetness, their range of flavour, the boggling idea they could be seedless.   
He fell in love with Chocolate, even the dark was sweet to him, the milk chocolate? Sinfully decadent, and something you had to keep hidden or he would eat it until his stomach was upset.

While tempted to feed him things he wouldn’t eat you wanted him happy and when he expressed true distress over a food you didn’t tease or test him when you had him blindly at your mercy. Instead reviling in sharing delights, loving his reactions, drinking in his happiness as much as he drank yours.

Broccoli and Cauliflower amazed and amused him, cabbage salad with sesame seed oil, sushi so fresh it didn’t need to be fermented, that all the worlds he had seen could be walked through and tastes unimagined presented to him with such ease. Thousands of years and hundreds of countries worth of culinary culture at your fingertips to amaze and delight him.

But it reminded you often of his age.

Of how time passed.

“Can you make yourself look older?” You asked thinking one day, your mind fluttering and fretting about the future.

“In the mood for a little bit of silver m’lady?” He gave you a roguish grin running his hands through his hair, letting it pepper, his scruffy beard getting a touch longer and flecked with grey as well. 

Still so handsome.

He got confused and maybe looked a little put out when you just “Hmn”ed at his transformation and continued about your business. Refusing to allow for such an offence to his vanity he darted in to tickle at your sides with his fingers and scratch at your neck with his beard demanding answers.

“What my sweet? My pet? My dove? What are these questions you ask?”

You laughed pushing at him until he gave up enough for you to speak again, feeling a little sad at how you had to make your play more serious.   
“I was just thinking about how you’re not human and worried that as I get older will people think you’re my son or grandson or something.”

“Ah.” Now it was his turn to get quiet, Dan didn’t really like it when your thoughts turned to the future and your inevitable end. “No I can make myself look older, or younger, to a point. Just the glamour and the physical form but not my true self. My true form does not age.”

“Mmn.” You nodded but this time he did not press to hear your thoughts, although you muttered a little to yourself “Remembered when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits…” 

Neither of you noticed the black spider on the wall.

———

“She’s using you.”

“What?” 

“She’s using you, I mean not that she’s not paying us for our contracts we’re getting… Well we’re somewhat getting a fair wage until you realize that the exchange for our labour is so deeply in her favour she’s paying us like children but we’ll make that back in our world with a proper exchange. But you? You she’s using.”

Dan looked calm as he stood up, his very scales bristling as he snarled a heated,  
“Brian shut the fuck up.”

The creature let out a dark laugh, ignoring Dan’s request and attempt at being dominating. 

“Come now, how do you see this all ending? That you’ll be permitted to stay in this world with her until her end days? Will you live in this mortal world forever her servant? Clouded by your infatuation with her? Do you see the two of you as being in love?”

“Stop it!”

“I’ve seen you walk this path before. Tell me again of the last one who denied you? What was her reason? Wanting to keep your love pure? How much of yourself did you give thinking she was the one? They are NEVER the one, they can never be the one, they are mayflies, they are entertainments, they are a glass of the sweetest wine!” Dan tried to keep himself taller but he felt himself shrinking back at Brian threw at him the truth that cut deep. “Drink boy, enjoy her if you will, sip down to the lees but I tire of seeing you crawl back every century broken by some mortal woman, so listen well. She’s sweet because she wanted you to arrange a safe contract to get us to fix her house. She’s kind because it serves her to be so. She feel’s love because you shower her with more affection than a mortal woman would ever get in this world. But when the sun sets she will send you back and call on you no longer because in the end she is mortal. How many years will she give you before she sees her aging form and yours trapped in youth and then that love turns cold and bitter poisoning your gut?”

Dan didn’t want to listen to this anymore, covering his ears he tried to defend you “I’m HAPPY Brian!” He snapped back turning to try and leave but Brian turned to shadow, his taunting words surrounding him. 

“For how long will you have that? Will you tell her how to keep her youth? Will you let her tear from your flesh your immortality and break you as you’ve let other’s before? I swore you an oath but I will break it and end her if she does Belthazzar this too I can swear to you by the dark hunt.”

Standing, forced to listen, eyes downcast to keep tears from falling the truth burned into him, no lie for Brian never lied, but he was also no seer of the future and Dan would not believe his words, he could not, but Brian was so rarely wrong.

“Please… Brian please if you have any love for me please stop.” 

The dark mists swirled again, enveloping the Incubus and solidifying around his neck into the form of a black snake. 

“Such a broken thing you are my friend, and yet that’s what makes you much more interesting than all other’s of your kind. Say the word, free me from my oath and I will end this contract and we can return home, rich and fat and you will gain the love and adoration of great creatures, courtly powers, you will rise in rank and prestige, not the pet of some tiny mortal girl.”

In that moment Dan wavered, all the joy he’d felt turning bitter, the fullness in his body feeling sour. Would that end this pain he felt? 

A few simple words and he wouldn’t even need to know what Brian did, just that he would be free to return home, free from this too fast and too bright world that made him feel so many things both good and ill, back where his people were waiting eagerly for him to spin this tale, and the ending heartache that would come with it?   
Oh that would give him a kingdom.

And he would rule for eternity as the brokenhearted king. 

“I— I can’t, Bri I can’t.”

The snake at his neck was silent for a while, and Dan shuddered as it moved, tickling past his ears and wrapping itself around his horns. 

“Then you should have sex with her.”  
“But she doesn’t like-“  
“She’s a mortal woman, they’ve been claiming to not like sex for the last millennia and yet humans will tear apart their own kingdoms to rut. You know how mortal males can be, she’s probably just been mistreated, or possibly she knows that by denying you she holds power over you. You have claimed she knows nothing and yet she has that book of spells and is a quick study, you’ve said it yourself.” Brian hissed in Dan’s ear his logic worming its way into his mind. “It’s that you cannot service her as you normally would that spurns your infatuation, you know this as well as I do. So take your powers back from her. Rut. Fuck. Make sweet passionate love, whatever you wish to call it, if you do and still feel as you do toward her and you can drink of those feelings and find the well of her love does not have a bottom then I will go. After all I’m sure a human is theoretically capable of true love, I’ve simply yet to see evidence of it but maybe she will be the one to prove me wrong.”

Unable to stand the feeling of Brian crawling through his hair any longer Dan pulled him from the tangled mess and tossed him gently into the air giving the creature more than enough warning to return to his more humanlike form. 

“I…” Dan thought of it, feeling conflicted and confused. Brian never lied and he brought up a long ago tale of another sorceress from a another time, one who kept him captive by refusing his advances.  
He didn’t think you were like that…

But he hadn’t thought that of the other woman either. 

“Fine, give me some time and I will show you that she is no enchantress and it is only the pureness of her heart that makes me her willing servant.” He consented with a sigh.

“A day.”  
“A MONTH.”  
“A week then but no more, you are an Incubus are you not? Can you not seduce a willing woman in such generous amounts of time?”  
“She… I…” Dan scowled, frustrated in part because he was scared of the challenge.

What if he COULDN’T seduce her? 

What if Brian was right and she was simply affectionate because it served her to be so? She’d offered him sex before and it had been him who turned it down because… Because he knew what it was like to do such an act without wanting it and he would never be the fault of someone feeling like that.  
But then that was before she’d bound him into a proper contract, before she’d read the book, before she knew what she knew now…

Pride was a stupid creature, rushing forward without thought or concern for anything but itself.

And Incubi were creatures born of Pride.

“Fine a week! A DAY even! I am no fumbling fledgling being strung along, you’ll see!” 

Brian did not lie.  
But that didn’t mean everything he said was true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this was a little fragmented and jumping around. I could have made them all into individual chapters but I dunno I was just kinda trying to piece it all together and push the plot forward. meeeghhhh working on it.


	8. In lieu of the innuendo

Dan had to double check the room to make sure that Brian was no where within earshot before he slid up behind you wrapping his arms around your waist nuzzling his mouth against your neck.

“When are you moving in?” His voice was a low rumble in your ear as he squeezed you close.

“Should be by the end of the week, Barry finished the septic and he’s just going to stick around to fix the wiring that Brian fried and make sure everything’s spell set, then he said if he gets 10 books of his choice he’ll help me pack everything over and promised he could get it done in a night? Can he actually do that?”

“Yes, that is an ability he has.”

“Well shit, if he doesn’t break anything I’ll get him 20 books.”

“Mmm once your bed is here will you be staying a night?”  
“I’ll probably be staying all the nights after that.”  
“Might I get one of those nights?”  
“Of course! What do you want to do?”

The main reason Dan wanted to make sure Brian wasn’t around was because as much as he was trying to make it sensual, this was probably not going to be a very romantic conversation.

“I want to make love to you~”

Even if he couldn’t sense your feelings the little sigh and deep breath that you took, how long you stood there thinking about what you wanted to say before you spoke told him that this might have been a bad idea.

He was deeply surprised when you patted his hand and went “Sure.”

“… Really?”  
“Wait, were you asking and expecting me to say no?”  
“Um… A little bit yes? I’m actually not really used to women who are so open with their desires.”  
“Welcome to the new millennium my friend. I mean I know it was a while ago but I told you I’m okay with having sex with you if you want. But are you sure you wouldn’t just rather I talk to Suzy I mean her and Arin really like you.”  
“As much as I enjoyed being with them both I want you.”

You twisted in his arms and gave him a little puzzled look.  
“What?”  
“Nothing I’m just… I dunno maybe kinda flattered I guess that with Suzy offering you’d still pick me.”  
“My Dove! Suzy is beautiful but you are my sunlit Queen! My moon and stars! I would tear myself—“  
“Okay, okay Romeo I got you, I’m a sexy beast.” You laughed as he let you go, his eyes mischievous and his tail twitching with play.

“Are you now? Are you a beast?” He covered his chest and tried to put on an innocent blushing face, “Oh woe upon me for this sexy beast has come to ravage my innocent flesh!”  
“Suzy tells me about what you guys do together, I know for a fact you are anything but innocent.”

His eyes rolled and his tail twitched. “Well then I suppose that /I/ am truly the beast!”

That was your only warning to run, laughing and screaming through the house as he chased after you. 

Not even Barry was willing to save you, getting out of the way with a blush and a laugh, refusing to take part in your play, Brian had taken one look at the two of you and with a disgusted snort disappeared in a cloud.

With no salvation caught into the arms of a wicked beast you allowed yourself to be ravished with kisses and cuddles. Forgetting to ask what had gotten into Dan to bring up this line of thought, hoping it was a passing anxiety and he’d forget about it himself.

———

Dan’s anxiety did not seem to pass but only seemed to intensify as the week went on. It didn’t bother you, if anything it made him sweeter, quick to make you laugh, quick to touch and cuddle, quick to dance, sing, play, or make himself useful to your slightest wants.

Especially if those wants involved any physical contact.

You wondered if it was from having sex with Suzy and Arin. He’d had a second and a third date night with them, and when his glamour dropped his more natural form seemed to glow with energy.

Not that he needed to drop his glamour anymore. 

The added energy allowed him to keep it up the entire day, feeling no stress or strain even when you put him to work, helping Barry carrying things around and later helping you arrange the house. But he preferred to walk around the house not in his glamour (and if he could get away with it not in clothes, but you had a strict “No bare asses on any floors, furniture or countertops” rule which generally forced everyone to wear pants or at least underwear.)

Maybe the added sexual feeding was making him more energetic which made him want even more from you? Maybe he was just feeling insecure since he was the third wheel to a pretty loving couple.

You caught yourself staring at him while you thought about it, sort of understanding how he felt in that case. You had fun with Suzy and Arin and they were your friends and you loved spending time with them, but they were the pair and you were the third person. It didn’t directly bother you but it was something that when you specifically thought about it did bristle your anxiety at times.

You could only imagine the added intimacy of having sex with them would amplify the feeling, and while he didn’t really talk about it you kind of felt Dan understood a lot of those same insecurities.

Dan caught you staring at him and gave you a saucy wink and a grin, blowing a kiss in your direction that you grinned and blew back at him. 

Tomorrow…

Tomorrow you’d finish your contract with him, with all of them, and then the both of you would have to make a very important choice.

—

Walking through the house for what felt like the millionth time you knew it was pointless to stay up any later. There would be no flaw that you could find, Barry had done his work fast and perfectly, with skill, technology, and a bit of magic. 

The house was done, his contract fulfilled. 

You were putting off sleeping because you felt scared.

Scared that they would all leave, worried that you’d be stuck in this place alone. 

You would give them almost anything they wanted when they left, gifts above and beyond what they’d asked in their contract, after all they had saved you a fortune and given you a home and while the supplies had been expensive their labour was truly priceless and they’d barely asked for anything for it.

But you’d told yourself, promised yourself, that other than an open invitation to visit as friends, you wouldn’t call on them. You knew that you would always feel a little guilty about this, how much work they’d given you and how little you felt you were giving them in exchange. 

So you were scared that they would forget to come back, or that they might choose to go and not to return. 

Mostly the latter.

Dan pattered into the living room where you were standing looking out the window into the yard, spring was here and it felt like no time had passed since his arrival and you didn’t want him to go. When he’d shown up the first time it had been short but deeply intense, now you’d had him for months and didn’t want to imagine the world without him.

“Lovely, what’s wrong?” He could sense the mix of emotion in you, prickly fear, sour confusion, sweet affection and pride, a strange chalky blankness that he couldn’t place but didn’t really like the feel of, but maybe that was just exhaustion? You had worked hard today too. 

He felt it all shift to a warm wash of affection as you turned and looked up at him, a desire mixed in, a golden thread of love woven into it all making his chest ache since he wasn’t even wearing his glamour and yet you could look at him and feel not scared or repulsed but a sweet want directed at him even in his natural form.

The slightly more bestial side of him wanted to horde every drop of those feelings, to keep you forever in this moment, locked in an eternity of supplication to him. He knew that part of him, those Bacchic mysteries that drove all incubi to frenzy, was the place of his power, something that always called fainter to him than with his brothers and sisters, something he often chose to ignore.

Pulling you closer, fingers gently caressing you cheek he pecked at your lips, carefully nipping away any worries or anxieties, letting only that affection and desire stay burning in you. 

“Come to bed with me.” His voice was dark, a tremor of power in it that made you feel warm and wanting. “I want you tonight, will you let me have that?”

A part of you didn’t, it never did and never would fully want what a sexual lover did want. But a part of you did, you wanted him to feel good, to feel pleasure, the insecure part of you wanted him to love you fully and it was hard to pull apart the connections in your brain that told you that with romantic love came sex.

With a steadying breath you followed him, letting him lead you to your new bedroom. It was nothing fancy as you went from a small apartment to a full sized three bedroom house. The little IKEA bed you had would be one of the first things you were planning on replacing once you could especially since Dan was longer than the bed was. It was one of the things your mind was drifting to as you let Dan tug at your clothes. 

Not that long ago Suzy had asked you what sex was like for you since she was sharing about how she was surprised you and Dan had not had sex since he was apparently amazing at it. You’d shrugged at the thought and had to explain to her that for you having sex was like watching the laundry dry, certainly there were parts that you enjoyed (that usually came before with teasing and foreplay or after with cuddles) just like you enjoyed having fresh laundry or those first few moments pulling the clothes out of the hot dryer where they smelled so good and were so warm. But the actual process of sitting there watching it tumble was at best just sort of boring.

You were trying to keep your focus tonight, and it was a little easier since Suzy was right, Dan was indeed a skilled lover. Biting just hard enough to keep your attention but not hurt, pushing into you at just the right speed and build to edge your body to where it wanted to be, whispering sweet adoring words at you that made you almost want to cry because it was hard to believe that anyone would ever think you so beautiful and yet as he looked down at you his eyes full of adoration you could believe every single word he said.

With a startled cry you felt a little surprised to find yourself actually orgasming, not that you never had before but that it was a rare occurrence for someone else to get you there. But the familiar wash of ‘ugh can this be over now?’ hit you the second that your body finished it’s final pulse, thankful that Dan had followed close behind, but still you wanted him to get off of you already.

Sex for you wasn’t completely boring but you hated to bring up the parts of it that grossed you out which was always the few minutes right after you came, where your body cooled almost instantly and you just felt gross and sticky and that your partner was too hot and you just needed like a minute of not being touched to wash off, brush your teeth and then you wanted to be cuddled until those bad, grossed out, crawling feelings went away.

Dan pushed up off you, rolling to the side, making you glad that he was moving without you having to ask. “I’ll be right back” You whispered to him sliding quickly from the bed to the small ensuite bathroom to take a fast, burning hot shower, and brush your teeth.

Getting out of the shower, with the toothbrush in your mouth, you paused hearing a retching sound from the bedroom.

“Aan?” You spat, putting your brush away and hurried back seeing him sitting up with a trash can in hand, looking up at you with a startled look on his face. “Oh no, Danny are you okay?”

He tensed, shying away as you moved closer, standing up to get away from you.  
“You… You didn’t like any of that did you?” He asked his voice sounding unusual and a little raspy, probably from throwing up.

“I— Well.” You gave a limp shrug. “I mean it wasn’t bad, but I told you I don’t really like sex so…” You weren’t sure what he expected you to say feeling a pang of disappointment run through you. He hadn’t actually been expecting to fix you with the power of his dick had he? You tried to keep from getting an irritated look on your face as that thought passed through your mind considering he wasn’t the first person to think that was a possibility. “I just wanted you to feel good.”

Those few words made his tight expression soften, his mouth open a little like he wanted to say something, looking at you with your wet hair dripping a towel wrapped around you his jaw clicked shut, face closing off.

“My— My contract with you is complete I need to go.”

“Wait What?!” You couldn’t believe what he just said, a confusing jumble of emotions scrabbling through you unable to believe what he was saying. 

“You got what you wanted, this house, complete and true. I have taken-“ His voice seemed to waved there as he moved further back from you, swallowing hard. “More than my due from you. I am— We are done.”

“No we are NOT Belteshazzar!” You hadn’t meant to yell or call his true name but he froze as you did, giving a small hiss, his eyes glowing in the light of the binding on his palm suddenly come ablaze. His contract with you was not actually complete, not yet.

“Dan I will end our contract if that is what you want, my final question that is promised to me… Tell me the truth, I’m asking you this so speak full and in finality. Do you love me?”

 

A wash of emotion pushed through Dan. 

Love her? How could he love her? He was a vile creature who didn’t deserve such a thing, how could she want him to love her after all this? He could feel the bile of her disgust, the only thing he could taste on her body after he had done everything he could to give her pleasure. She had told him, point blank over and over that this was not something she wanted and yet she forced herself to do this for him! HIM of all vile contemptuous creatures in all the realms, him who would violate her body, to use her like any other mongrel dog, for nothing more than a petty pride filled bet.

A warning burned in his palm.

This was the end of their contract, her final question to him, no longer would he be bound after this and they would both be free.

He pulled back, smiling at her sweetly, showing teeth and an edge she’d not seen before, reaching for that wall between her world and his.

“Is this your final question for me? Oh my sweetness… No.” He answered with all the cold he could find in himself, pulling between their worlds just in time, wondering if she could hear his scream as the binding to his hand lit aflame searing into him like a brand.

Marking him a liar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am moving a little faster with this than I wanted but I just don't have much filler for it to be honest. I guess to be fair I think the chapters are MUCH longer than with the first one.
> 
> Also sorry how I portray our reader here and her reaction to sex. 
> 
> She's not full up grossed out by the very idea of sex but is MOSTLY grossed out by it. It's like if someone asked to lick her ear, sure if she liked them well enough and if they built up to it and offered her cuddles afterward she'd be STILL GROSSED but okay with it since she likes them but it's not something she is like "Oh yeah LICK MY EAR BBY STICK IT IN SO GUD" 
> 
> And she DOES get off with Dan but once she's done it's like, not a mind blowing thing and she has no afterglow because she's still all "eeegggghh tongue in my eeeeaaarr" So as Dan was hitting his own orgasm he'd been sipping on her anxieties the whole time (because she is a combo of boredom, arousal, love, but also since she's not like 110% into what's going on and mentally only half there with him she's also thinking "god do I smell funny? fuck can he hear that squelching noise? I wonder if he prefers Suzy to me? I hope he can't taste those chips I had... Damn it should have brushed my teeth earlier." which makes her anxious) so he at first was thinking her disinterest was just that since he could sense she was getting sexual pleasure and she was feeling affection for him and was somewhat aroused but once she got off he wanted to take a sip of that pleasure filled afterglow and just as he was hitting his own moment got a huge mouthful of her being hella yicked out by bodily fluids and sweat.
> 
> Which he took to mean as her being just yicked out by him.
> 
> So while she was in the shower he was sitting there going "Oh my god... I forced her to do that, I made her feel that, she hates me, how could she not hate me, how could I ever have done that to her? I've ruined everything, I am a monster..."
> 
> Like this is no different than if he took her to a sporting event, it's not something she LIKES in fact it's something she really DISLIKES but she'll do it because she likes HIM but of course he can't expect her to like it. But he fell into the stupid belief that Brian was right and she was just pretending not to like sex because that is an idiotic sentiment that people have so he does deserve a bit of an ass kicking for not just listening to her in the first place.
> 
> I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE?


	9. In the end know my intent though.

As Dan disappeared you sat heavily onto the bed staring at the empty space he’d occupied just seconds before an icy blade cutting into your chest.

He didn’t love you.

Cold, cloying despair bubbled up in you freezing your body to the core as you sat there, hot tears falling down your face.

He used you and left.

You couldn’t move, so shocked and confused.   
How could he do something like this? Why would he bother? It made no sense!   
Why play at all that affection just to sleep with you? Why leave as soon as he had it? 

You thought you’d done everything right, he had sex if he needed or wanted it through Suzy and Arin, was he truly that bored and disgusted with you that he didn’t wish to be around you at all now that he knew for certain that you really weren’t sexually able to perform the same way? Was his male or incubus pride so damaged by the fact that ‘a good fucking’ failed to ‘cure’ how you were?

Despair broiled over into rage. Was this how he was? Just another thin skinned petty male who needed his ego via his dick stroked to validate himself?

Standing you paced the room, rage swinging back to confusion swinging again to sadness swinging to blind fury with no outlet to take it out on swinging to…

A brief moment of clarity that made everything dangerously still.

Dressed only in a towel you left your room and went down into the living room where Barry was, tomorrow you were to fulfill his contract with books and treats so it was to be his last night here. The night had mostly passed in your pacing and he was already up, not that he slept much to begin with, exiting the kitchen with a carton of milk to his lips, eyes going wide seeing you in a near naked state, coughing on his drink and looking away.

“Oh UH You’re um Hi!?”  
“Barry, are Incubi capable of love?”  
“What?” He still was trying not to look at you his face very red.  
“Are Incubi /capable/ of love? Can they feel actual love?” It was the thought that had finally calmed you down bringing you to clearer thinking than the rollercoaster of emotions you had been riding.

What if Dan simply couldn’t love, what if he or all Inclubi were aromantic and here you were, pushing affection on him that he couldn’t express in the way you wanted him to, and now you’d gone and pushed him away because he knew he’d only disappoint you being unable to love you in the way maybe he thought you wanted him to.

“Um… Well I mean in general I suppose, are you asking in general? Or are you asking about Dan?”  
“Dan.”  
“Well yes, he’s very loving and very much capable of it. To be honest the poor sap has gotten his heart broken a few times. He’s probably more capable than most… of his… kind…” Looking at you, from your red eyes to frazzled hair and state of undress, his eyes flicked behind you as his voice slowed wondering now where Dan was. “Whats… Going on?”

Ignoring his question you moved past him to the kitchen, your mind bouncing to another thought, running over for the millionth time that night how Dan looked, how he acted, his face as he disappeared into the night.

He could feel love, and you’d told him again and again that he had no obligation to you… so what if…

Pulling the spellbook off a shelf in the kitchen you grabbed a silver bowl and filled it with water, grabbing the milk out of Barry’s hand eliciting a “hey!” out of him as you added a splash to the bowl as well, a knife from the drawer to cut your forearm (knowing that for all the movies showed people cutting their hand that was a stupid place to injure yourself) to then shake a few drops of blood into the bowl to turn it a cloudy pink.

Barry made a distressed noise and slowly started backing up as you spoke dabbing the blood on your arm to draw a sigil to your hand and dip it into the bowl, it hissed and you yelped yanking your smoking hand away staring at it in surprise, a deep confusing sadness welling up inside of you.

His binding was still in effect, his contract still running which meant…

Why would he lie to you? Why on earth would he do something so foolish as lie to you about something like that of all things? Why would…

Something in your brain clicked into place.

Looking up, Barry was backed up against the counter a little scared to leave but equally scared to stay. You probably looked terrifying, hand smoking, arm bleeding, frazzled, and full of power, staring at him like a means to a deadly end.

“Barry… Where’s Brian?”

——

Dan was lost, thrown adrift to the dark, left alone in his torment for so long that he craved the eternal slumber, only holding onto the day lands because he knew he did not deserve those peaceful twilight lands. 

He only wished the human’s hell was real, that was the torture he felt he deserved.

“Why are you here Bri? To mock and torment me further?” Dan rasped finally waking after who knew how much time of pain to see the ancient fey playing the role of nursemaid at his fevered bedside, no recollection of where he was or how he had gotten there.

Things shouldn’t haven been as bad as they were.

Dan had lied.

He’d lied when under a bound oath to speak the truth, he’d given the most boldfaced untruth he had in him and was being punished for it. The burns to his hand were not entirely the problem, he could have gone quickly to any hedge-witch or a plethora of other’s who could have easily broken the painful binding and soothed his hurt.

But he had not.

Instead he’d thrown himself into the pain, letting it ravage his body, burn him to delirium, eat at him until the pain in his heart could be overshadowed by the agony found in his physical form.

“You are a fool.” Snarled Brian, wrapping a cold cloth reeking of herbs around his hand. “A damned fool with a fools luck and a fools friends. Had I found you later you would have lost your arm.”  
“I’ve already lost my heart what is an arm?”  
“Oh shut up.” Brian snapped back with a roll of his eyes.

Had it been anyone else being told to be silent by a creature such as Brian they would have wisely kept their tongue even if it was death they were seeking, but since it was Dan he instead fell into wailing. 

“I am! I am a fool, how could I fall so deeply for a mortal? I hurt her Bri, she begged for my love and I USED her. She asked for nothing but acceptance and I threw it back at her because… Because you’re right! She’s going to die, she’s going to die and where her spirit goes I cannot follow and I will die too, I cannot give her what she needs and OW—“ He was cut short as Brian tugged sharply on the bandages.

“Your sire must have fucked a mare’s arse because you are full of horse-shit.” He sighed his face looking a little softer. “And yet I must take a fair wage of blame here too. I had hoped to break you of this folly before it got this far. I am sorry friend I did not wish to see you hurt.”  
“Then why? Why push me to hurt her? Why challenge my stupid fools pride to do such a thing to one so pure and undeserving of it?”

“Because I didn’t expect you to be such a dew-beater! I had assumed you would purge your fascination, have a few years of fun and then leave off once the two of you realized that a sexless human and an creature born of passion were not exactly fated to be. I didn’t want to see you fall this far into the goose-saddle only to be broken when she died or threw you to the wayside. I didn’t expect you to lay with her and then fall on the sword of your own stupidity.”

“Why are you helping me then Bri? Broken now, broken later, I am broken! A fallen useless—“  
“Moron. With the love of a woman who’s equal the fool to you.” He snapped cutting Dan off of his pitying rant. “Do you know what it costs to bind /me/ of all things to a true contract Belteshazzar?”

Dan looked up at him, his pain and pity draining into true dread realizing what Brian was implying. “No.”

“Yes. Your little enchantress is all the fool that you are but a far more cunning one I will give her that. She bound me, /ME/ to speak sooth, to find you, to care for your tender hearted stupidity.”

“And to drag me back for her to punish?” Dan’s voice dropped to one of fear. 

A woman who could bind Brian scored…

“No, to care for you to find happiness however you wish to seek it.” 

Dan stared at Brian in shock. After what he’d done he expected her to hate him, that he could treat her so poorly and she would still care for him? Tears fell from Dan’s eyes as he looked up at the roof not wanting to know how badly he’d ruined everything. All he’d ever dreamed of ever wanting, shattered. 

Brian sat fully on the floor next to the mattress Dan was on shaking his head, if he was capable of guilt he would have been awash in it.   
“A fools luck finding true love only to foolishly run from it.” The older creature sighed looking away from the crying Incubus. “I am truly sorry Daniel I have caused you to hurt your Queen and for that I have no means of obtaining forgiveness.”

Dan let out a soft sound, a whimper of pain either from his heart or hand as he let himself sink into bitter sadness. He couldn’t even be angry at Brian, the creature had suggested he sleep with his love, not to lie or leave her, he never asked Dan to break her heart.  
No Dan did that all on his own.

But Brian owed him a boon and she had…

Brain sat up hearing Dan gasp suddenly, moving to help him as the Incubus struggled to sit up grabbing onto Brian’s shirt with a frenzied look on his face 

“What… What did you take from her as payment?”

“Dan.”  
“What did you TAKE?”

“I have taken life from her as is my due.”

“HOW MUCH BRIAN?”

Brian’s contracts were not cheap, no simple sweet or knowledge or energy would fill the power that he truly was.   
Even a sacrifice of blood was too cheap.

He took lives.

“Hundreds of years Dan… Hundreds of potential futures, her payment was a woman’s legacy. For you to be well and happy, she will never bear children.”

Dan looked at him, shaking and horrified. “Give it back to her then, if you wish forgiveness from me give it back!”

“I cannot do that Daniel, my contracts are not so easily changed and honestly?” Brian shook his head giving an odd smile. “I think she’d be more angry if I did, she was strangely… Pleased at the stipulations of my pay. It is a strange woman you’ve fallen for, no desire to breed at all, although I read that was a more common occurrence in this age.”

Silence fell between the two of them as Dan took in that information. It wasn’t that uncommon for witches to sacrifice their ability to have children for great power, after all if she stayed bound to Dan his poor Queen would never have children anyway. Rare were the births between mortal and immortal and Dan was a weak stock to begin with…

Still he’d left her, and she’d given up that for him anyway.

He looked at his bound hand not knowing what to do, how could he ever repay such a gift.

“She just wants me to be happy?”  
“When one truly loves that is all they want of the one they love. She told me that whatever it was you choose to do, as long as it makes you happy she will be content even if you do not return.”

“How could she want my happiness after what I have done?”  
Dan chose to ignore Brian’s grumbled “Because she’s an idiot…”

“Do you remember the one who took your wings.”

Dan snorted “How could I forget? That was how I met you.”  
“Did you like it when she took them from you?”  
“Of course not, I nearly died.”  
“And in the end when I offered to get them back for you did you take me up on that?”  
“No…”  
“Why not?”  
“Because I loved her.”  
“Even when you knew she had not loved you back.”  
“Yes, even from the start I’d always known she hadn’t loved me but…” Dan sighed because he understood. He loved a woman who never loved him, he’d given her a gift that pained him and yet he never wished her ill because that’s what love was.

He’d left her after that, after all simply because you loved someone didn’t mean you should be with them especially if they hurt you. He was a fool at times but not a complete idiot, he could love and still leave someone if it was in the end better for him.  
But that didn’t mean he had to wish them ill or hate them.   
Love was without reason, without logic, without recourse, love was your responsibility, a gift given freely, unearned by the other, a burden for you to carry, not them.

Dan had loved many women with such fervour. What others of his kind had in passion for the flesh he had in passion of the spirit, a bright kindness in him that made him love with little thought or concern to himself.

It shocked him that anyone would ever feel the same for him. 

It scared him a little too.

“No, this is foolishness, human’s can’t feel love this strongly, they’re just too… Small…” Dan said more to himself than Brian.  
“Normally I would agree with you and yet here we are.”  
“Well… It doesn’t matter. I hurt her, she deserves someone better than me, a mortal to spend her days with, one who would never cause her pain.”

“Would that make you happy? To see her with another?”

“No, but my happiness doesn’t matter, it’s hers that does.”

Brian made a strangled noise snarling under his breath “I should have eaten you centuries ago when I had the chance, you are such an idiot.” but there was no real venom to his words.   
Still it did give Dan a start when he got up and lifted the incubus from his bed, worried as Brian’s form shifted to smoke swirling around him that he was going to make good on his threat and end Dan’s small existence. Dan closed his eyes to the dark that covered him, clinging to Brian’s form as it solidified once more almost scared to see where the creature had taken him until he heard a soft voice speak his name.

He was back in your kitchen.

You were sitting at the table, nursing a cup of tea and a book, perfectly startled to see them both there.

You’d hoped, not much but just a little, that Dan would come back, but as the day turned to a week which faded to a month you’d mostly given up. Barry had come back to visit once, telling you he hadn’t seen or heard from Dan or Brian since they’d both left. You’d dropped the subject after that, not wanting to pester him about it and instead just enjoying his quiet unassuming company.

“As per my contract.” Brian stated dully, unceremoniously dropping Dan flat onto his ass on the floor making the poor incubus curse and cry out in pain. “If he keeps acting the fool… Hit him.” And with that the creature disappeared.

Dan sat up on the floor shrinking away from you, he looked like hell. All the gloss of his hair and scale that he had before had faded away, where he was starting to soften in form from feeding with Arin and Suzy it had now fallen back to tight flesh over bone. You could see how his hand was wrapped up, held protectively against his chest, tail in his lap meekly thumping. 

You weren’t sure what to say, hot emotions had long since drained away, a cool crust of disappointment that you were slowly working on letting go was all that was left. 

“Is this from the binding?” You finally asked.  
“Some…” Dan admitted still not looking at you.

Sitting there in thought you finally came to a decision. He flinched as you stood up, coming to kneel in front of him, shying away but not outright rejecting your touch as you took his face in both of your hands making him look up at you.

His eyes widened as he felt like he was drowning, thrown into a sea of emotions that dragged him under in their torrent. 

Anger, Sadness, Worry, Fear.  
Dark cloying despair, oily rotted melancholy, an acid wash of letting go to clear it all away.

A warm blanket of concern pulled him up from the depths, nips of guilt, tugs of the desire to repent.

A small seed of hope waiting in a garden built of…

“I d-don’t…” Dan broke eye contact, his body shaking with the emotional assault thrown at him as he pulled back, pushing your hands away from him. “I can’t… I hurt you I—“

He was cut off as you slapped him. Not hard but enough to startle him into silence.

“Are we even now? You hurt me, I hurt you, we made a mistake but that happens! Dan I love you, I really think that I really do love you and if you don’t love me that’s okay, if you feel confused or unsure, that’s fine, love is fucking complicated and full of people hurting but—”  
“You were disgusted!” He interrupted unable to believe that he was getting such forgiveness for what he’d done.  
“And so were you when I made you eat eggplant.”  
“Thats… Very different.”  
“No it’s not! Dan… God I wish you’d just talked to me about this before running off… I’ve told you sex isn’t that important to me, yeah it’s kinda gross and sorta boring but it’s okay because it’s with you. There was nothing that happened that night that I didn’t want, you didn’t hurt me or force me or coerce me at all I was there because I wanted to be. Dan, if you really want to go I won’t stop you but there is no part of me that wants you to leave. Don’t make yourself miserable and pretend it’s for my sake, that’s bullshit to try to put that on me.”

Dan lapsed back into quiet and you let him, not sure what else to say or do to convince him to stay, hoping that was what he wanted.

“I’m an idiot aren’t I?” He finally whispered, still mostly curled up into himself but his tail reaching out to brush against your leg.  
“Yeah but, I love you anyway.” Was your reply as you leaned into him a little, sliding his tail into your lap, fluffing the hair at the end of it making him squirm.

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually hated this chapter.
> 
> I dunno, I had all this written out back when I originally wrote The Bad Touch and it felt okay back then, but as I was flushing out the rest of this story this ending just started to feel dumber and dumber and very "drama for the sake of drama" which is a theme I'm not often a fan of (because I am a big fan of people being adults and talking out their problems)
> 
> I guess to logic this out to myself, Dan does come from a society where people rarely if ever speak directly about anything. To offend someone even slightly could be death or worse for someone to have something as simple as your true name means they hold great power over you, to give someone your heart is even more.
> 
> Dan is also the kind of person who has been hurt so many times by humans and other fey alike and yet he just keeps throwing himself out there wanting to feel love so when he finally gets it well... He's like a dog chasing cars, he doesn't know what to do not that he's caught one so he just sort of self sabotages. 
> 
> Reader of course seems cool and collected now but she was hopping mad, she tricked Brian into a binding circle and then got the story out of him that he'd kind of challenged Dan to sleep with you thinking that the both of you would lose your infatuation if you did and she railed him out on that before binding him to a contract of making sure Dan was happy. The rules on that are basically he's going to be stuck with Dan for basically eternity because she gave him her ability to have kids on the agreement that he was bound to her bidding for a lifetime for each child she could never have.   
> He agreed without thinking too much on human anatomy and then she told him average human lifespan in this world was 80 and she ovulated on a monthly basis and probably would have done so until she was at least 50 so he owes her somewhere in the ballpark of 19,000 years worth of servitude.


	10. Notes because who knows?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I'm ever going to finish this story so I'm posting all the added notes I have for it and where I was thinking of going. Maybe one day I'll come back to it but for now I'm just so busy I have absolutely no time to even think of it and the longer I don't come back for it the more I forget where I was going with it.

———————

He was still injured.

Brian’s care had brought him back from a dangerous ledge but he’d let himself burn far too long, let his heart weaken his body, the infection ran deep and he was drained dry from it. 

You’d called Brian back, asked him what could be done to help Dan, not appreciating his blunt “He needs to stop being an idiot” and got the more clear answer that the Incubus needed to feed, deeply and properly feed so he would have the energy to heal.

Something a little harder to do since he didn’t have the energy to put up his glamour anymore. 

He had taken little sips from you, the heat pulling from your body every time you pressed your lips to his, but you were too full of worry, anxieties, fear, what he could use from you wasn’t enough to do anything beyond sustain him where he was.

“You… Can call maybe Holly?” Dan finally asked as you were changing the bandages on his hand. It wasn’t that gross but it was red, the brand on him still fresh and raw looking, filling you with guilt at having put it there in the first place. “She knows and maybe… If she’s willing? I mean if it’s okay with you?” 

Him sleeping with others wasn’t a thing that bothered you, that was something long established and didn’t upset you at all. What bothered you was that he still wouldn’t look you in the eye as he asked this. There was still a layer of shame over him that you didn’t need to have any sort of mind-reading powers to sense. 

He felt guilty still over what he’d done, if anything it was that guilt which was keeping him from fully healing.

As Brian had said what he really needed was to stop being an idiot.

He pulled his arm away from you once his wound was covered again fidgeting with the blanket over his lap.

“No.”

His eyes finally turned back to you, surprised by your reply.

“No, it’s not okay.” 

Dan took a small breath, like he was about to argue, but instead his eyes slid away, defeated and accepting his fate. It hurt you to think he was so willing to take such a harsh and torturous punishment simply for disappointing you.

But you’d already made up your mind.

Kneeling on the bed, placing a hand on his cheek you made him look up at you, his eyes widening as you kissed him, you knew thinking and feeling were two different things and didn’t always cross over but you thought about all the things you liked about him and embraced the feelings welling up inside you. 

Love, acceptance, forgiveness.

Crawling over without breaking the kiss you straddled his hips, letting him pull back as you did.

“Love no, you don’t have to do this.”  
“But I want to.”  
His eyes flicked over your face, a small hitch in his breath before he shook his head. “No. I can’t, I won’t do that to you again.”

“Dan look at me.” Placing your hands on his cheeks you kept him steady letting your emotions flow freely so he could feel everything you said. “If you don’t want this tell me no, tell me to go call Holly or Suzy and I will arrange something else for you. But I do love you, I do want you, it might not be in the ways that you’re used to but in my own way I do.”

 

————

-Things go well for a long time, Dan seems healthy and spry and full of energy and has a great relationship with everyone in town and starts working with Arin on music and Brian even helps there too and life is pretty damn good. Then Dan gets ill, something is wrong with his back, he doesn’t know what’s going on, Brian has no idea what’s wrong with him, Barry also has no fucking clue. Two strange growths that are torturing him, making it hard for him to walk or move, swelling and bruising him.   
Dan is terrified, he has no idea what’s happening to him and he feels like he’s getting torn apart everything hurts so bad, he can’t be moved, can barely be touched, Brian exchanges a life of servitude (80 years off his debt) to help you cast a spell to locate something that could possibly help Dan which summons Mark.  
You feel weird around Mark, hot and kind of sick. A vile, gross, unwanted feeling that you can’t really understand but don’t like at all. You feel stupid and drunk around him. Dan is 500x hostile towards Mark but is desperate enough to let Mark look at him, Mark’s not entirely sure what’s wrong but has a weird hunch and freaks everyone out by cutting into one of the lumps. It’s a gross eruption of puss and blood but the cut sends off a chain reaction of tearing flesh and a wing comes out (Brian almost kills Mark for assaulting Dan and you are right behind him if not for the fact that you completely faint. It’s the fact that Mark catches you before you hit the floor that saved him because he more or less uses you as a human shield from Brian’s wrath until Mark points at Dan and Brian see’s that Dan is fine and he has wings again.) Brian is a little floored about it, Dan is too, Mark has no idea since that’s not how normally incubi get wings (they’re born with them) but no Incubi has ever been stupid enough to let someone cut OFF their wings either so maybe this is normal. (Some have had horns or nails broken off but those of course grow back, any time an incubus has lost a limb before they tend to die after)

Brian carefully makes a cut along the second lump and Dan’s other wing comes out, He puts you on the sofa, Dan in a patch of sun after washing him off, and cleans up the room of all the gore. Dan is still in a pretty wretched state but you play with him after you wake up and see that he’ll be okay, wanting to touch his new wings and he’s hungry and you allow him to feed and feel better. 

Mark however is still around once you wake up the next day, he’s got his Glamour on and doesn’t make you feel as instantly ill with it on but mostly you’re just too tired to care. Still you thank him for his service and talk with him about how things are in the house Mark requests an open invite to the house too since after all you summoned him here and got his help without establishing a contract so you somewhat owe him and really it’s only his fear of Brian that is keeping him in line (since it certainly isn’t his respect of Dan, you kind of don’t like him because he keeps calling Dan “runt”) He keeps getting too close to you, making you feel dizzy and strange still. You don’t even know what’s happened but suddenly you’re on the ground behind Dan who is literally snarling at Mark standing between the two of you threatening to tear the other Incubus’s head off. Mark seems more amused than anything until Brian shows up, apparently you’d agreed to let Mark stay although you can’t remember it and agreed to let Mark feed as well. He refuses to leave until he gets his payment, unable to leave without it anyway since it has been a long time since he’s fed, you need to make some kind of arrangement with someone for him but you don’t trust him and Dan is being SUPER FUCKING TERRITORIAL of EVERYTHING which is 50% sweet and 50% annoying as fuck because he won’t let Mark feed on anyone anywhere and you kind of agree because you think Mark is an ass even though on some level you feel weirdly attracted to him and Dan is super prickly about that.


End file.
